Race Distinctions in American LawStephenson, Gilbert Thomas
History
Race Distinctions in American Law
Stephenson, Gilbert Thomas
African Americans -- Politics and government; Law -- United States -- History; United States -- Race relations
The property test in the Southern States is an alternative of the
educational tests. That is, if the applicant cannot satisfy the
educational test but can satisfy the property test, he may register and
vote; or he may do so if he can satisfy the education but not the
property test. Unless special mention is made at the time, this will be
understood in the following discussion of these two qualifications. When
it is said that such and such property or educational qualification is
required, it is meant only that it is required in case its alternative
cannot be satisfied.
In Alabama, the property requirement is that the applicant for
registration be the owner or the husband of the owner of forty acres of
land in the State in which they reside or of real or personal property
worth three hundred dollars upon which taxes for the preceding year have
been paid. In Georgia the requirement is forty acres of land in the
State or five hundred dollars worth of property in the State. In
Louisiana, the requirement is three hundred dollars worth of property
and payment of the personal taxes. South Carolina prescribes three
hundred dollars worth of property on which the taxes for the preceding
year have been paid. Of the Southern States which have altered their
suffrage laws since 1890, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia have
not provided any permanent property test.
The property qualifications cause the disfranchisement of more of one
race than of the other only in so far as the first is more shiftless and
more delinquent in the payment of taxes than the other. If the Negro is
given the same opportunity as the white to acquire property, he has an
equal opportunity to register under the property clause of the suffrage
laws.
_Educational Test_
In no sense is the educational qualification peculiar to the Southern
States. As early as 1855, Connecticut required of voters ability to read
the State Constitution. The present requirement, as amended in 1897, is
ability to read the Constitution and statutes of the State in English.
In 1857, Massachusetts added as a prerequisite to voting ability to read
the Constitution of the State in English and write one’s name. The
Constitution of Wyoming of 1889 provides that the applicant for
registration must be able to read the Constitution of the State.
California, in 1894, required ability to read the Constitution in
English and write one’s name. Similar requirements were made in Maine in
1893 and in Delaware in 1900. In the territorial possessions of the
United States, a Hawaiian elector must read, speak, and write English or
Hawaiian, and a Filipino must speak, read, and write English or Spanish.
In the Philippines this qualification is an alternative of the ownership
of property; in Hawaii and the States mentioned above the educational
qualification is absolute.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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